And Baby Makes Three, or Four
by Buster's Jezebel
Summary: Merle and Michonne have a baby. No one dies. I claim no ownership to The Walking Dead in anyway, shape or form. T for language. No smut in this for those who expect it of me by now.


A/N This is a prompt written for Flyin'ByTheSeat who wanted my Merle and Michonne from Black Beauty to have a baby. I couldn't do that because Michonne in Black Beauty had had surgery that meant she could no longer have any children. So here is a separate Merle and Michonne fanfic where they have a baby. I hope I do them justice. My husband said I needed an epilogue so it doesn't end as she gives birth. There is a little afterward. And NO ONE has died! Sorry for those who love the angst. There is a little angst but no death in this world. And I hope I've created worthy children for Merle and Michonne.

**And Baby Makes Three, Or Four.**

_2 Months._

"Are you fuckin' kiddin' me?" His accent was thick as it always got when he was particularly feeling something.

"No, I managed to find a home pregnancy test. I took both of them and they were both positive." She is calmer than him but not by much.

"Fuck!" This time he kicks the fence they're patrolling. She agrees with him mentally. He stops and looked at her suddenly. His eyes raked her up and down. He takes in the changes he'd noticed without realising it, wider hips but no weight gain, fuller breasts bursting out of her vest that had fit her perfectly before. He scrubs his left hand over his face before raising it to his head and scratching his scalp. He wishes he still had a his right hand so he could scratch both sides at once.

Suddenly he stops pushing her over onto the internal fence and leaning up against her. His right arm is over her head his left hand splays on her abdomen. He stares steadily into her eyes. "I guess we'd better start makin' plans then. I'm fucked if our kid's gonna sleep in a fuckin' box." He leans in suddenly and kisses her. He kisses her as if his life depends on it. His tongue enters her mouth taking ownership of it, demanding she give it to him.

She always does. Never once has he made her feel less or inferior with the way he is. And he is big, brash and bold in every way. He swears as if its going out of fashion and more often than not someone in their community is pissed off at him. She doesn't try to change him. She wants him exactly as he is, it is the feral man who the she fell in love with, why would she change that? It is the feral man who made her pregnant. She wonders as they kiss why women fall in love with one man and then immediately try to change them into something else? To her it simply defeats the purpose of being in love. She moans into his mouth as his left hand massages her stomach. He moves it around to her buttock gripping her cheek as he leans fully onto her, pushing them both into the fence. She feels his cock against her and raises her leg around his hip.

His mind is spinning. Spinning with the wonderful scent that is his woman and something like panic. He's made a baby. After all of his years of fucking around he'd finally managed to make a child. He was humbled that the woman who had become pregnant to him was this Warrior Queen in front of him. As they kissed he swore that their child would know both parents. It would be loved by both parents and it's Uncle. And it would never want for anything he could give it.

_4 Months._

"What the fuck do you think you're doin?" He snatches her katana from her hand as he pushes her none too gently away from the vehicle.

"I'm going on a run, we need stuff. Beth and Carol are coming with me." She is calm in the face of his fury. She knows he's worried, she's worried herself. But they've gotten past the three-month mark. Herschel said not to plan anything until that was past. Of course they did, how could they not? She defied anyone to not plan for a baby from the moment they know it's on the way. So she had a list and a companion who had been a Mother as well as her best female friend among their community and they were going on a run for baby things. And clothes, she grimaced as she tried to hitch up her trousers. She'd expanded just enough that most of her clothes wouldn't fit beyond another week if she was lucky. He opens his mouth to say something but Beth beats him to the punch. "Don't worry Merle, we'll take good care of her. We'll all come back in one piece." She smiled at him as he ignored her to continue to stare at the Mother of his future child.

"No you can't come." She forestalled what he was going to say. Irritation flashed across his face at her reading his mind and she smiled glad to get one up on him for once. She put her arms around his neck stepping up onto his boots. Looking into his eyes she said "I will be coming back and _we_ will be fine." She emphasised the we knowing he was more worried for her now because she was carrying their child. "You can come next time maybe depending on how we go today. Today is small stuff and clothes for me if we can find anything." She kissed him and began to step back but he pulled her to him and moved in. He kissed her as he always did taking possession of her mouth. She sighed into his as they kissed. She would love to stay with him. Just as she was thinking maybe she shouldn't go without him Daryl came up yanking Merle away from her with a curse that they had to get to hunting. Merle leaned in for one last kiss as his arm brushed over the slight swell of her stomach. "If you don't fuckin' come back to me, both of you I'll fuckin' haunt you for eternity, you're fuckin' stuck with me now you got that Woman?'

"You're stuck with me too Redneck." She says this as she climbs into the passenger seat of the vehicle and it rolls out before she can hear his reply. She laughs as she looks in the rear view mirror to see that he is more than likely cursing at Beth who is driving.

_6 Months._

He wakes stages alerted by movement against his stomach. He murmurs to her sleepily confused when she doesn't answer but the movement continues. He runs his hand down her back and to the front of her hip and still she doesn't answer or move. He realises she isn't awake; that their child has awoken him moving inside her. He opens his eyes and looks down. He sees her stomach rippling and moving as the baby, their baby kicks and moves in the early morning chill. He wants to see more. But he knows enough that if her moves her this may stop the baby moving. He leans away from her doing his best not to jostle her in their narrow bed, they really need to look into bigger beds, especially now they have more in their community these days and a lot of couples. He slowly slides his stump up under his shirt that she uses to sleep in taking it up with his movements. The shirt gets caught for a moment on the swell of her abdomen before cruising higher.

He stops it just under her breasts leaving her moving belly bared to his view. It is the most beautiful thing he's seen. The thought that their child, a human being they have created together is inside this woman, His Warrior Queen humbles him as nothing else on this Earth could do. He inches down in the bed until he is on his side with his head looking directly at her moving stomach. His breath ghosts across it as he swallows. "I love you already Munchkin, whether you're a boy or a girl the only person I'll ever love more will be your Mama." He rubs his left fingers over one of the places the baby seems to like kicking soothing it it seems as the movements slow. "You two are already the most precious things to me, I ain't gonna let anything happen to either of you, and if something happens to me, well your Uncle...he'll step up, I've already fuckin' told him that." The longer he talks the slower the baby's movements become until they peter out altogether. He huffs in disappointment at being deprived.

"She likes your voice, you shouldn't have spoken to her." Her words are quiet in the early dawn that is just about to break. He looks up to see her looking down at him. Her eyes are wise and knowing. He knows she sees the real him and loves him anyway. How did he get so lucky in life that he was given the gift of this tremendous absolute unconditional love? He grins at her "Could be a boy ya' know Woman, in fact it probably is, Dixon's breed cocks usually."

"We'll see," She says as she rolls her eyes at him and they both laugh together.

_8 Months_.

Jesus God, she wanted this to be over. How the hell did she manage to get herself knocked up at just the right time to be heavily pregnant in the heat, the unrelenting humid heat of Georgian summer? She waddled, yes waddled toward the stairs of the guard tower carrying the meals for those on watch. Herschel said the stairs were good exercise for her and he wanted her to be as healthy as possible for what he thought was coming. She would be lying if she said she wasn't hoping he was wrong. And she'd be lying if she said the thought of what he'd said wasn't freaking the hell out of her. But she was keeping all that to herself. She paused on the landing for a minute something she had only started doing this past week. She'd dropped which apparently meant she could go into labour at any time. She knew he was going to raise holy hell at her carrying meals and water upstairs but she'd needed to move. She had always been so active in her life, taken that ease of movement for granted. She swore she would never do so again as she came to the top of the stairs and went inside. They were sitting there watching the perimeter. Really the only way you could tell they were brothers was with their bearing and mannerisms. They did not look-alike in any way. But they were alike, forged through punches, belts, kicks and cuts. She knew he was determined that he would not be like that with their child. But she already knew he wouldn't be. And she knew their baby's Uncle wouldn't be either. She wouldn't have fallen in love with one of them and grown to love his brother otherwise. She knew she made him a better person but she didn't think he'd ever realised that he'd saved her and made her a better person as well. He thought he was lucky, he didn't realise he was a gift to her. Her Redneck, was literally her Knight in Shining Armour.

_Birth._

She could feel the twinges in her abdomen. Her back was aching and cramping. Carol was watching her carefully but she wasn't going to get herself horizontal until her water broke. Her back hurt too much these days for her to be still for long. So she folded laundry and paced when she needed to. She felt vaguely stupid being inside doing the laundry, She sucked at household stuff big time. She was thankful she had other skills that allowed her to be useful. And when she could she was going to have Merle and Daryl teach her to hunt. It would be another way she could give. Really they all needed to be multi-skilled these days anyway.

Her water broke as she turned around to come back to fold more laundry. She stopped while it ran down her legs and her first contraction started in earnest. She bore down breathing through it as Carol had shown her. Carol called for Beth to get Herschel as she came toward her taking her arm telling her in no uncertain terms she going to bed. He came in with his brother just as she was being changed and propped up in the bed. They'd managed to make a double out of two bunks. Herschel had had it moved to the centre of the room so he and Carol and Beth could be on either side of her without any hassle. She was the first one to give birth here in the regular fashion. No one wanted to mention Judith's birth and what had happened to Lori. She breathed through another contraction as Herschel told Merle to get cleaned up. He and his brother, if they were going to be here they needed to be clean. They left but not before Merle leaned down and kissed her thoroughly saying "Hold him off 'till I'm back, I ain't missing his entry into the fuckin' world for anything."

She smiled as she huffed at him "Don't be gone long then."

Herschel checked her out when they'd gone and pronounced himself happy with her dilation whatever that meant. She was too focussed on breathing through the increasingly longer contractions to worry about anything else. The pain was getting bad but she'd be damned if she'd scream and draw more Walkers to the fences.

When Merle came back in clean and damp and smelling of whatever soap they'd managed to scavenge she held out her hand to him. He took off his prosthesis and sat beside her on the bed but she sat up huffing and pulled him closer. He understood and toed off his boots before crawling into the bed and sitting behind her so she could lean back on him. She settled with a sigh and a hiss as another contraction hit her.

He wrapped his arms around his Woman as he felt her body clench in pain. He could literally feel her contractions under his arms and between his legs, her whole body was working to deliver their child. He was so afraid something was going to go wrong leaving him with neither woman nor child. Herschel had said she was healthy, everything should be fine but he couldn't help but worry. There wasn't an age gap between he and his brother without a reason. He remembered what losing those kids had done to their Mama. And that was with modern medicine. They had nothing but the skill and knowledge of a vet here with them today.

That and the joint will of the two of them. He looked up meeting his brother's eyes. They shimmered at him in the cell. Or maybe his were shimmering. Suddenly his brother moved in behind him, hands on his shoulders. He said nothing but his touch meant everything. That he would touch him at a time like this when he knew he needed it. His head fell down onto her shoulder as tears leaked out of his eyes. They had to be okay. He raised his head again kissing her cheek as another contraction contorted her. She grunted with the pain but no more. She gripped his thighs as hard as she could. He knew she was bruising him but didn't care. Whatever she needed of him he would give from now until he drew his last breath.

She could feel her body working like it had genetic memory of what do to. And maybe it was imprinted into her genes. Time passed for her in a hazy state of breathing and huffing and gripping Merle as if her life depended on it. He said nothing only soothed her by sliding his arms and hand over her abdomen constantly in a never-ending cycle. He knew words were superfluous to her now. So he spoke with actions, as they usually both did. And then Herschel said she could push.

_Push?_ Fuck what had she been doing? But suddenly that didn't matter as her whole body tensed even more and he felt her bear down. Jesus God, what the fuck had he done to her? He swore he'd never touch her again if it was going to cause her this much pain. He could feel it rolling through him as if it was too much for her body to bear. Her hands moved to his knees and gripped them unrelentingly. His brother stood steadfast at his back, his hands still on his shoulders. The three of them were a unit, would always be a unit. The outcasts and misfits who were more comfortable with deed than talk.

Before he knew it he heard an indignant wail. Herschel told her to push one more time and her felt her do so.

A girl. They have a girl. Before he can do anything he realises something is wrong, she is not relaxed her body is still working. He looks at Herschel mutely as he hands off the girl to Carol who takes her to clean. Then Herschel is looking back between her legs and smiling. Smiling? "Looks like I was right, you're having twins."

_Twins, they're having fucking twins? What the fuck_? His thought processes are way too jumbled to make sense of it. He feels his brothers hands tighten on his shoulders as he snorts a laugh of shock. "Motherfucker" he hears him murmur. Suddenly he realises they've made not one child but two. They hadn't prepared for two children. Fuck. His left hand smears across his face in tired shock as he feels her continue to work to expel their second child. It's a boy.

His girl was older. He knew it was the universes' sick fucking joke, telling him in no uncertain terms that the girls were going to rule his roost. He shook his head as Beth cleaned His Woman up. She was tired but uncomplaining. When he went to move she held him in place with one word "Stay." So he stayed. Beth placed the boy into her left arm and the girl into her right arm. As she nuzzled them he nuzzled her and wrapped his arms around all of them.

Fuck, he'd gone and gotten a family. Who'd would've thought it?

_Years later._

God he ached more with each passing winter. The years of hard wear and tear on his body were starting to make it harder for him to get up in the morning. She is already gone as he knew she would be. She'd always been a morning person. He stretched deliberately working out the kinks and heard his ligaments crack and pop as he did so. Herschel had said he should stretch before he went to bed in the evening too but sometimes he was just too tired.

He found her walking along the fence line on patrol. Her hair was beginning to grey, and it was no longer in dreads. Usually she'd put it in a braid of some kind to keep it at bay. It wasn't afro curly but it was curly enough that she found it annoying. She'd cut it once she said but hadn't liked it so never did so again. His was completely white now. She turned to him stepping up onto his boots as she always did to bring herself closer to him. They kissed each other also as they always did. It was a matter of principle that they did this because in their world each kiss may be the last. "They back yet?" He questions feeling the tension in her body.

"No, but Daryl said mid to late morning." She continues to walk the fence line and he falls in beside her. They patrol, watch and wait together. On their second lap around the perimeter an hour or so later the lookout signals to the East. They head in that direction and see the three of them coming out of the tree line at the same time. They head over to the gate while watching them walk toward home.

Like Michonne Daryl is also greying, his beard had gone grey first, his hair was more grey than brown now. His eyebrows were grey too.

The girl to his right is tall and lithe, she has a ground-eating stride having inherited his legs. Like Daryl she has a crossbow slung over her shoulders and her hair is pulled back in a single braid that hangs down her back. She wears a bandana pirate-style over it as well. Her eyes are the bluest he thinks he's ever seen on a female and her skin is the colour of extra strong milk coffee. There is an automatic pistol on her left hip and a machete hanging from her right. She has a pole resting on her left shoulder as she and Daryl are carrying a deer between them.

The boy is to Daryl's left. He is also tall with that same ground-eating stride having inherited his legs as well. His skin is a shade or two lighter than his sisters and his hair is a dense brown but curly exactly has his had been at the same age. And his eyes were a dark bitter chocolate-brown verging on black when he was angry or roused about something. He was more Daryl's build though from their Mama's side of the family. He was whipcord lean and tough as leather. He had a slightly smaller deer slung across his shoulders and two short swords on each hip along with a rifle slung across his back. Another couple of knives were on his person somewhere too of that he had no doubt.

He thought it was ironic that the boy had inherited his Mother's love of blades while his daughter was just like him preferring to beat the shit out of anything with her bare hands when she could. He pitied the people who tried to tame them. They were a product of their parents, the best and worst of them were in each. As they should be. They were feral as he was but both had a slightly tempered sly piece in them too, just like their Mother.

She watched them walk toward the gate. Their children, the blood of their blood. How had they managed to get them to this stage? She was in awe of the job they had done on them both. She knew if she or Merle died today that these children that they had created together would flourish like nothing else on this earth.

She opened the gate as they arrived timing it so they didn't have to slow down but that the gate was not open any longer than needed. As her son walked through he paused dropping a kiss on her cheek before he continued on to the area where they dressed their game. Daryl and her daughter followed close on his heels. Daryl giving her arm a squeeze as her daughter kissed her father's cheek and they were off as well.

They locked the gate and headed after them slowly. A lot of the danger had passed but there was still some remaining. People who took through violence or people who died without anyone to make sure they couldn't come back as a Walker. There would always be danger for them and the community they'd created here.

He grabbed her hand as they walked thinking that his family was home, whole and complete again. Life was good.

**The End.**


End file.
